Sunday 24 October 2010

Couldn't Have Put It Better ...

... than Nicholas Lezard at CiF.

The strange thing is that cigarettes are now seen as so evil that it is impossible to explain to people that a modest habit such as Clegg's is really not so bad for one on the continuum of harms. Why has smoking become the Worst Thing Ever?

I would suggest that this is because it has come to be considered a legitimate outlet for the expression of people's self-righteousness. People are now hooked on looking down their noses at anyone else whenever they can, and there are few easier targets than someone who confesses to being a smoker.

To admit to being a smoker is to admit to being weak, to being in thrall to an addiction (albeit not a glamorous one), to not knowing what is best for one. And, worst of all, for not doing as the majority tell you to do. There is no excuse for smoking, not really – you can manage without it – and so it enrages people all the more when someone admits to it.

But the more people act like that, the more the smokers will entrench. Like the last village in Gaul that resists the occupying forces of the Romans, there will always be a group of smokers who do so not only because it can relax one wonderfully (think of all the soldiers who smoke) but precisely because it enrages an enormous number of busybodies.
Damn right!


12 comments:

bnzss said...

I almost dropped my fag when I read this on CiF.

The comments kinda put it into perspective though...

Grob Bone said...

The Last Act of Defiance.

The quintessential 'Fuck You!' to the busybodies.

The lines are being drawn ...

The witch from Essex said...

I used to be a 'considerate' smoker, but now I couldn't give a flying fuck who gets a waft of my cigarette.
I was never a litter bug but now I empty my portable ashtray in all the places that are haunts of the zealots.
If I am treated like an outlaw I may as well behave like one.

Akvavitix said...

Feel like starting smoking again, now that I know it could be considered a protest and a fat "Fuck you".

jredheadgirl said...

It's almost impossible to be a considerate smoker now, simply because they have left us no place to go.

SadButMadLad said...

I'm just waiting for someone "vapping" to be accused of smoking and to prove that they are not - two fingers to the stasi in effect.

manwiddicombe said...

I heard yesterday that Cheryl Cole has a 4 a day habit.

And suddenly I find her more attractive.......

Dick Puddlecote said...

Talking of busybodies, Duncan Bannatyne fled Twitter with his tail between his legs last week after being an ignorant dick once too often.

Read here and here for the full, delicious story. :)

Ed Butt said...

Having survived a (not smoking relates) brain haemorrhage Dick, I think the only reason I would ever smoke even as casually as I once did (simply to get out of the madness in the office for a few minutes) would be to piss off people who need to be pissed off.

On a realistic scale of guilty pleasures smoking would come a long way down from the top. Sadly politically correct tolerance has taken all the fun out of sado masochism, cross dressing, infidelity, streaking and supporting West Ham.

Unknown said...

DP I recorded Nick Clegg's talk on Desert Island Discs yesterday where he talks about his life, music included, and it was a fascinating insight to his politics. He mentioned fags throughout but you have to wait to the end to hear him say that his dream choice on an island was a load of cigarettes. He loves music that I do, don't know about Radiohead tho. Anyway here is the link to my upload which is 45 minutes long.

It is a must listen to DP, even though tobacco leaves you cold. You can listen here. There is a little break in the chat as I mistakenly turned off the sound while I went for a pee yesterday. Stick with it though, it is good.

Anonymous said...

One fine day,in the not to distant
future,smokers will have to re-install their backbone ,stand up
straight and seek out the weasly
zealots . Make their life hell and
that of those who mix with them.
Anything and everything is on the menu regardless of how unsavoury or
unpleasant the reprisals may be.
The health freaks will only listen
when their collars are felt.
Aim for the cruisers,the regional
mouthpieces,without them the
mothership flounders.

Enough is enough


Nice guys and pretty boys,
Buzz off,your methods are just
being treated as a joke by the Antis

Junican said...

It's jealousy.
Jealousy that they can't afford to smoke themselves. Jealousy that the smoker has a pleasure that they cannot have. Jealousy that the smoker dares to take a risk. Jealousy that smokers are happy in each other's company.
Just sheer jealousy.